[Hightower] Surrendering to the Terrorists

Good grief. With Democrats like these, who needs Republicans?

Last week, 19 Democratic senators surrendered to bullying and fear-mongering, extending the executive autocracy of the Bush-Cheney regime. By joining every Republican senator to OK Bush’s blanket program of mass wiretapping that he had secretly launched, these 19 defectors from fundamental democratic ideals are surrendering your and my constitutional rights.

In the name of “protecting” us, they voted to invade us. This law extends unprecedented and unconstitutional power to the White House, letting a president whimsically decide to have the government listen in on hundreds of millions of our phone and Internet messages. No courts, no warrants, no oversight.

Yes, terrorists are a threat, and, yes, we must be vigilant as a nation, but that doesn’t mean being stupid. Bush likes to say that terrorists “hate us for our freedoms.” If that is so, how pathetic is it for him and Congress to be so cowed that they react by removing our freedoms? Liberty is America’s greatest treasure, our defining ideal—why are today’s craven leaders surrendering something so essential to terrorists? The founders understood that you don’t gain security by locking down liberty, and subsequent generations fought, bled and died to secure that wisdom. Are we so weak today that we can’t stand up both to the terrorists and to those who would shred our Constitutional principles?

Most of the media coverage of this legislation has focused on whether AT&T and other telecom giants should get retroactive immunity for having illegally helped Bush spy on us. I think they should not, but let’s not lose sight of the bigger issue. By massively expanding the executive branch’s spy powers, it’s our own elected representatives who are surrendering our civil liberties and betraying some 230 years of the rule of law.

Jim Hightower is a national radio commentator, writer, public speaker and author of “Thieves In High Places: They’ve Stolen Our Country And It’s Time to Take It Back.” He says he has taken on the role of battling the Powers That Be on behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be—consumers, working families, environmentalists, small businesses and just plain folks.

Previous Comments

Great article, Jim. It does seem as if our civil liberties are gradually being eroded away.

#76132 | Author: LatashaWillis | Date: Feb 21 2008

I keep warning people–give the government an inch, they’ll take a mile. We’ll slowly but surely slide down that slippery slope to where we won’t have any rights any more.

#76133 | Author: golden eagle | Date: Feb 22 2008